Money and Banking: FOMC Meeting
Instructions for FOMC Meeting assignment for class
(This assignment is worth 10% of your final grade.)
(This assignment is designed to be completed during the class session, and in place of meeting for regular
lecture. However, you may do the assignment anytime that is most convenient for you.)
1. Watch the press conference of the March 20 FOMC meeting and/or read the transcript, both
posted to LMS under “Assignment: FOMC Meeting”.
2. Write a 2 page essay (double spaced, 11 pt. font, one inch margins) to include the following
content:
a. Summarize what Chair Powell states with regards to monetary policy decisions made by
the FOMC during this most recent meeting.
b. Apply some of the course material to help understand Powell’s statement (ie. think of
the federal funds market, the dual mandate, the model of AD/AS).
c. Listen to (or read) the Q&A session that takes place after Powell’s 10 minute talk. Pick
two questions you find most interesting and write about the questions and Powell’s
answers in your essay.
3. Submit the completed essay in LMS; DUE DATE is Wednesday, April 10
https://www(dot)federalreserve(dot)gov/monetarypolicy/fomcpresconf20190320.htm
Money and Banking
Name
Institution
Money and Banking
Summary
The supervisory decides that the US economy is at a better place after conducting an overview of general economic conditions. Nonetheless, there is a need to continue using monetary policy tools to retain it at the predetermined favorable ranges because of the estimated risk of the low international economic growth. One of the risks explained is the issue of Brexit which still remains unsolved and is likely to affect the world economic growth in the future with the US not being an exception. Moreover, inadequate data collected proves that the level of economic growth in 2019 has declined compared to that of 2018 which requires the use of monetary policy tools to make an improvement. Nevertheless, the economy is still favorable as proved by various economic measures such as stable employment rate which is below 4%, an inflation rate which is still around the required level, and growth of 2.5 % which is still favorable despite its reduction compared to that of 2018 which stood at 3.1%. Further, investment and business and household consumptions have decreased but they still remain at favorable ranges. Hence, there is still a positive outlook of the economy despite the reduction in performance compared to that of 2018.
Application of Course Material
The monetary policy can be understood better by applying some of the concepts from the course materials such as aggregate demand (AD) and aggregate supply, federal fund market, and the dual mandate. Apparently, the aim of monetary policy is to ensure moderate...